The Heart and The Breath
by SheSaidMoo
Summary: Post-RENT. I brought back Angel. Deal with it.


Note: Yes, I know I brought back Angel. I couldn't leave him out! I also invented a cure for AIDS. Deal with it.  
Rating: PG-13  
Disclaimer: Mark, Angel, Collins, Roger, etc. are all the work of Jonathan Larson, as the book, music, and lyrics. Know what? Anything that's RENT is Jonathan's. XP  
  
Mark Cohen, filmmaker, sat on an old, lumpy, white couch with brown stains on it. The stains came from tea, coffee, just about anything and everything anyone who lived there consumed. The whole of the sofa wasn't even white anymore; it was turning shades of grey and brown. The twenty-three year old was fiddling with one of his most prized possessions, his camera. None of his friends knew what any of the pieces did or what they were called, but they all knew not to disturb Mark while he did what he needed to do, which is why the apartment, often called the loft, was empty at this very moment. Thomas Collins, called Collins, was out with his lover, Angel Schunard. Roger Davis, Mark's best friend, was out at Mimi Marquez's apartment on the level below. Maureen Johnson and Joanne Jefferson were probably out rehearsing a protest or fighting at Joanne's place. Just as Mark pondered the title of his film, the phone rang. As much as he wanted to ignore it, the ringing was messing up his concentration, se he went up to answer it.  
  
"Hello?" For a moment, there was no response, and he came very close o hanging it up.  
  
"Hello? Mark, dear?" Oh, /god no, he prayed. It can't be...  
  
"Mom?"   
  
"Mark! How have you been?" He knew by that moment that he should have let the damn phone ring.  
  
"Okay, I guess."  
  
"Well, neither I nor your father has seen you in months, so I was thinking..." Here's the clincher, he thought. "Would you and your friends like to come here for Thanksgiving dinner?"  
  
For a moment, he winced, but then realized she'd said "And your friends," Hmm, he thought, she must not know about Angel yet. Or Collins, for that matter.  
  
"Well, mom, you know we're all very busy over here but I suppose I could ask the gang if they'd like to come."  
  
"Well, very well! I'll see you then?"  
  
"Sure, mom. Well, bye."  
  
"Buh-bye!"   
  
God, he thought as he made his way back to the couch. What the hell have I gotten myself into?  
  
As if the entire universe were working against him at that moment, Roger walked in. "Well, Mark, what's for dinner?"  
  
Mark whined. "Roger, you know we have no food."  
  
"Well this shall be a very pathetic Thanksgiving. It's next week, you know."  
  
"Don't remind me."  
  
Though they both knew there was no food, Roger proceeded to check the fridge and all the cabinets. "Why? What'd you do, agree to your mom that all seven of us were going to go to her house for Thanksgiving?"   
  
Mark buried his head in his hands. "Exactly."  
  
At this point, Roger had found a raw potato and started eating it like an apple. And then he dropped it. "Oh. God. No."  
  
As the potato rolled onto the other side of the kitchen, Mimi made her way up to the loft. "Roger!! You just wasted a perfectly good potato! You better have a good reason." She stood in the doorway, eyeing him from head to toe. Wow, she thought. It must be pretty bad to have him frozen like that.  
  
"Mark...dinner...Thanksgiving...mom..."   
  
Still standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips, she furrowed an eyebrow. "Mark's mother invited us to go to her house for Thanksgiving?" Roger simply nodded his head. Never having met Mark's mom, she simply bounced on over to him, thanking him. "We never have food! This should be lovely. We should go on over early to help out! It's the least we can do to thank her."  
  
The thought nauseated Roger, forcing him to go to the bathroom to recover.  
  
"C'mon, Roge! It can't be that bad!"  
  
"You've never met my mother."

"Never met her? Please. Doesn't talking on the phone count?"

"Wha?" Roger had the dumbest look on his face as he came back and sat down on the couch next to Mark.

"I've talked to her on the phone before. You boys can be so naive. You're always going out, leaving poor little me all alone is the loft, so I answer the phone. And Roger?" Mimi walked over to the couch and plopped on Roger's lap.

He was almost too stunned to speak. "Yes, Meems?"

"Your mom wants you to visit as well."

"You talked to my mom too?!"

"Well, duh. She calls, I talk. I think you two should visit your parents more often. At least..." She slowly picked herself up off of Roger's lap and wandered to the kitchen, picking up a fork and fiddling with it while she faced the wall.

Roger got over the shock that Mimi was talking to his parents more than he, and followed her. "At least what, babe?" As he said this, he put his arms around her waist, rocking her back and forth. "What's up, Meems?"

"Nothing, Roge. Never mind." She put the fork down and turned around.

But he could tell this nothing was a whole lot of nothing. He could read her eyes, and they told her she hurt inside. "You sure? Your soul says differently." She giggled. "Seriously! I mean, the eyes are the window to the so-"

She stuffed her tongue down his throat before he could say anything else. He let out a sigh, and let her do what she pleased. He pulled her in close, and ran his fingers through her hair. No matter how wild her hair got, it was always sickeningly clean and smooth, never tangled.

"Guys. Guys? Collins and Angel are here and-"

Roger turned around quickly to discover Mark in the doorway. "God, Mark. How long have you been standing there?"

He stepped a few feet closer. "Oh, three minutes or so. You two were entertaining. Must've taken all your willpower not to fuck right there, huh?"

"Pfft." Mimi walked through the doorway, right past Mark and right to Angel. "Angel! I haven't seen you since last week! Girl, we gotta do lunch or something."

Angel giggled and gave Mimi a hug. "Yes! Or let's do dinner tonight." She looked around and leaned closer to Mimi, whispering in her ear. "Benny invited all seven of us to the Life. His treat. We should take him up on it."

Mimi laughed, and then agreed. Mark and Roger walked in through the kitchen, Mark leading, and sat on the couch. Collins came in with bags of groceries and deposited them on the floor. "We've got food, boys!" Angel half-glared at him and Mimi gave him a full glare. "And girls!"

Roger walked over for the sole purpose of picking through the bags. He then fumbled through one of the bags and pulled out a jumbo bag of Cheetos. "WHOO HOO!" He jumped for joy and ran back to the couch to pop open the bag and eat.

"Babe, you need to eat healthier." Mimi walked over and plopped down on his lap, seizing a handful of cheese puffs.

"Collins needs to buy better food!" With his free hand and a full mouth, he pointed at Collins.

"At least I buy food." He sat down on the couch next to Roger and Mimi and took a few Cheetos from the bag.

"Guys, we need to go to the Life for dinner with Benny." Angel gave Collins a hug from behind

"Benny?!" He turned around to grab her by the shoulders and Roger started laughing.

"Speaking of food," Nobody had really become aware of Mark on the other side of Roger because he'd been so silent. Mark had a tendency to do that. "We're all going to my mom's house for Thanksgiving."

Collins groaned, but Angel on the other hand smiled. "That's sounds lovely Mark!"

Mimi got up from Roger's knee and walked over to Angel. "See, Mark? It's not going to be that bad. At least somebody agrees with me." Angel and Mimi started laughing madly as she finished saying this.

"What's up with you two today?" Collins walked over, circling the two of them slowly.

They immediately stopped and stood up straight. "Nothing, Collins babe. Nothing at all." She then proceeded to pin him against the wall and kiss him. "It's just that Mark probably hasn't told his mom about us. She's one of those Christian-Catholic mothers. Very against boy-boy love. And girl-girl for that matter." She turned around giving Mark a puzzled look. "Doesn't she know about Maureen?"

"Yes, and that's what bothers me." He stole some more cheese puffs from Roger, who'd nearly eaten the whole bag at this point.

"Maybe she thinks by doing this, she can bother Maureen enough to get back together with you." Roger finally put the bag down and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

"Joanne is not going to like that." At that moment, Joanne and Maureen invited themselves in, grabbing a box of cereal from the bags.

"I'm not going to like what?" She opened the box and sat on the couch, grabbing some cereal.

"That we have to go to Mark's mom's house for Thanksgiving next week." Collins followed Roger with what remained in the bags to store the food. "And his mom doesn't like boy-boy or girl-girl relationships, if you know what I mean."

Angel slumped against a wall. "At least his parents love him. Even when he and R-"

Mark jumped up, covering Angel's mouth with his hand before he could say anything else. "He means, even when I told her about Maureen, my mom pestered me to get back together with her and eventually she stopped, coming to terms with it." He knew nobody understood what he just said, but he ignored that and whispered to Angel. "Nothing, absolutely nothing, about Roger and I, ok?"

Angel laughed, and remembered the only ones who knew about Mark and Roger going out before Mimi came were Roger, herself, Collins, and Mark. She'd found out in a game of truth-or-dare the four had played once. If Mimi found out, well, she'd probably kill Roger. "Ok, Mark."

The rest of the company sat there, confused, as Mark decided now was a good time to head over to the Life to meet Benny.


End file.
